You win some you lose some. (Or, a conspiracy theory)

Today was yet another test of wills as I got a rematch in Noelle v. Airlines.

I should have known it was all too easy. My taxi arrived right on time, there was minimal traffic en route to Paddington Station, and the Heathrow Express only took 20 min instead of the expected 40. (Talk about express!) I checked in, got a sweet aisle seat in the exit row, and life was looking good. I noticed that the 4:50 flight to BCN was delayed nearly an hour, but thought nothing of it. Silly me.

At 5:45pm I looked up at the boards and realized that my flight was closing in less than 10 minutes, so I ran (sprinted, really) with all my stuff from one end of the terminal to another. Made it to my gate in the nick of time, only to realize that the woman had just ripped the stub off my ticket... for a different flight. The late one to Barcelona that was supposed to leave 2 hours earlier. I calmly hauled it back to the main terminal area in order to check where my flight was... Ah, of course. Two hours delayed!

Feeling rather sweaty and more than a little parched, I bought myself a nice big bottle of water, had a few sips, and contented myself with my internet addiction until my flight was finally called at 8:30. I walked to the gate area, where I was met with a massive queue. Believe it or not, we were being marched through security. AGAIN. And my lovely 1 liter bottle of Volvic and I had to part ways. Of course, there was no warning of additional security. But there was definitely water for sale (at extortionary prices) on the other side of the metal detectors!

Thus, I believe this is a conspiracy on the part of the bottlers, water companies, and soft drink makers. Work with me, people! I'm not crazy!!!!!

Anyway, the only good thing about your flight being 4 hours delayed, is that you think you'll arrive and find no taxi queue because it's 1am. Wrong. It seemed that 1am was suddenly prime arrival time, and the queue for taxis at Terminal B stretched about half a kilometer (I'm not joking) and looked like it would take at least an hour to get through. So I pushed my little trolley over to Terminal A. An extra 5 minutes of walking got me to a beautiful, empty taxi stand and a dozen waiting cars with the green "empty" light on.

Airlines 1 : 0 Noelle
Airports 1 : 0 Noelle
Other travelers 0: 1 Noelle
Water companies 1 : 0 Noelle

I guess it could've been worse. I had no strikes to deal with....